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Swamp Gothic
Classification and Dialects Swamp Gothic is, together with the closely related Crimean Gothic, one of the few remaining remnants of the Ostrogothic language. It is spoken in a few villages in the marshy areas of Volhynia around the Pripyat and Bug rivers, in territory in contemporary Belarus and Ukraine. There are two major dialects of the language; the western Pripyat dialect and the eastern Berezina dialect. The two dialects are mutually intelligible, and the standard orthography serves for both of them. They differ mostly in the realization of nasal vowels. Historical phonology Swamp Gothic is an East Germanic language, and like its sister language Crimean Gothic it preserves a number of specifically East Germanic sound changes. *vallaz > Bible Gothic waddjus > vađovs "wall"; *triwwiz > triggws > trižovs "true"; *ajja > *addja > jožo "egg"; cf. Crimean Gothic ada.Proto-Germanic and other reconstructed words are transcribed in *bold with a preceding *'''. Bible Gothic words are transcribed in '''bold. Swamp Gothic and Crimean Gothic words are transcribed in italics. #Graphic ai, au > e, o. I am assuming that Ulfila, who assembled his own alphabet and was free to draw distinctions, spelled them all the same way because they sounded alike to him. airþa > *''erto'' > jereto "earth" #a/o, ā/ō > o/a #θ, ð > t, d; þliuhan > teljuchõ "flee" #q > k; hw > v; w > v hwaila > vjelo "while"; *bliwa > blivo "lead" #Open syllable rule: Closed syllables are reduced, in the following stages: ##Nasals: *N indicating either *n or *m not immediately followed by a vowel: aN, eN, iN, oN, uN → õ, ẽ, ẽ, õ, ỹ; swinþs > svẽts "strong" ##In a cluster of stops or fricatives + another consonant, the obstruent is deleted unless the cluster can occur word-initially; nahts > nochs "night" ##Liquids: eR, oR > eRe, oRo (see below) ##But final ''-s'' is preserved where it has grammatical significance, without regard to the nature of the resulting cluster. However, final ''-s'' will be lost after a palatized consonant: fisks > višč "fish" (nominative case). #Consonants are palatalized by an immediately following *j: #* sj, zj > ʃ, ʒ #* nj, lj, rj > ň, ľ, ř #* tj, dj > ʧ, ʤ #* bj, pj, mj, wj > bl, pl, ml, wl #Prothesis: Before a word-initial vowel, j or w is usually inserted, depending on the vowel: je, ji wo, wu, but either ja or wa. Grammatical particles such as prepositions are not always affected: asans > josons "harvest, crop" #Palatalization. k, g, x > ts, *dz, *ʃ before or occasionally after e, i. This leads to regular alterations in the morphology. #Vowel quality shifts: All pairs of long/short vowels become differentiated as well by vowel quality: #* a, ā > o, a #* e, ē > je (with palatizations) #* i, u > ɪ, ʊ #* *ī, *ū, *ȳ > i, u, y #Breakup of liquid-final syllables: or, ol, er, el > oro, olo, ere, ele; gards > horods "town, enclosure"; fairþs > vereds "world"; wairstwo > vorostva "husband". This also holds true before semivowels; *farwa > forovo "color" # ur, ul, ir, il > syllabic r, l, ř, ľ #Word final stops are devoiced. #g > h; dags > dohs "day" ##Except in cases of VgC, in which g > j: bagms > bojms "tree"; fugls > vujls "bird" ##ŋg > ŋ, written ng. #hj > j #VhV > VchV, and occasionally elsewhere; hiuhma > juchmo "heap, pile" #CwS, CuS > Covs; fotus > fatovs "foot"; triggws > trižovs "true" # VfV > VvV Phonology While umlaut is not a feature of the inflectional system of Swamp Gothic, palatization does figure prominently and tends to be strongly regular. The following table indicates the palatized forms of the stops and sibilants. These are the palatizations that are marked specifically by diacriticals in the orthography. Other consonants are subject to palatization besides these; for these, a following j'' in the orthography indicates the consonant quality. Consonants Vowels Phonotactics Writing System For most of its history, Swamp Gothic was a purely oral language. The standard orthography was devised by the missionary Fjodor Polešuk in the late nineteenth century, and is meant to create a written norm that applies equally to the eastern and western dialects. The two dialects differ in their realization of the historically nasal vowel sounds, written Ã, Ẽ, Õ, and Ỹ. In the more conservative, western Pripyat dialect, these sounds are realized as short nasal vowels. In the eastern Berezina dialect, the nasal feature of the vowels is dropped and the underlying vowels are lengthened, making Ã, Ẽ, and Õ identical in realization to Á, É, and Ó. The historic nasal feature is retained in the orthography. The dialect spoken in the Pinsk area varies in the adoption of this sound change, although the substitution of /o:/ for /ɔ̃/ is usual in when Õ appears as the infinitive ending of the verb. The two dialects also differ in their realization of the sound represented by the character F, which in the western dialects is /f/ and in the eastern dialects /ɸ/. A number of digraphs are used: ''ch represents /x/, and lj and nj will be realized as /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ respectively, and /i:/ is represented by ij. The letter G was formerly used as a sort of an opposite to J; where j'' was written to indicate a palatized pronunciation, ''g would be used with a non-palatal consonant. This written convention is obsolete except in the digraph ng representing /ŋ/. Grammar Nouns 'First declension, type A: non-palatal stems' The first declension contains masculine and neuter consonant stems. Historically, these are a''-stems, and ''o-stems in Indo-European. For stems whose final consonant is subject to palatization changes, several pattens emerge. For roots with non-palatal stems subject to palatization, the genitive singular and plural will be subject to change. For stems whose final consonant is already in the palatized series, it is the dative singular and plural that change. The consonant to which the root changes back is lexical. As in most Indo-European languages, for neuters the nominatives and accusatives are identical. Masculine nouns of this declension have ''-s'' in the nominative. volofs, "wolf" (m) Also declined like volofs: vuls "bird", himils "heaven", lebs "bread", ljubs "leaf", vlabs "grease" and many more. Note also that in this declension, a distinction is drawn that does not entirely map onto gender in Swamp Gothic. Animate nouns that name people or familiar animals, such as volofs and vuls, have ''-a'' in the accusative plural, but ''-as'' in the nominative and vocative plurals. Inanimate masculine nouns have ''-as'' in both. Neuter nouns will have ''-a'' in all forms. 'Nasal stem' ščẽs, "stone" (m) Also declined like ščens: čudõs "people, folk, nation". 'Neuter nasal stems ''korõ (n) "grain". Also declined like korõ: ogorõ (n) "fruit", jezorõ (n) "iron", and many more. 'First declension, type B: palatizing stems' vorod "word" (n) Many Swamp Gothic nouns are declined like vorod, including jets "oath" (m), fisks "fish" (m), vẽds "wind" (m), vosts "twig" (m). The masculines all lose the ''-s'' prefix in the vocative and accusative cases. Masculines also have ''-as'' in the nominative and accusative plural. 'H-stem' Historically, these nouns have ''-g'' as the final vowel of the stem, which regularly changes to ''-h'' in Swamp Gothic. This becomes ''-ž'' before the palatizing genitive endings. dohs, "day" (m) Also declined like dohs: vehs "road" and vihs "soldier". 'First declension, type C: pre-palatized stems' herežis, "shepherd" (m) Other nouns declined like herežis include onis "end", vičis "wheat" (dative stem vit-''), ''ličis "doctor, physician" (dative stem lik-'') ''bođi, "bed" (n) Other nouns declined like bođi include neči "net", veđi "vow", čẽđi "family". 'Second declension, type A: invariant stems' The second declension is historically the 'o' declension, corresponding to the Indo-European h2 declension. Most nouns of this declension are feminine in gender. hibo, "gift" (f) Also declined like hibo: ovo "river", koro "care", njelo "needle", gorovo "ditch", vjelo "time", runo "secret", and many more. 'Second declension, type B: palatizing stems' The only place the palatizing stems of this declension alter the root is in the dative singular. jereto, "earth" (f) Many nouns are declined like jereto, including bludo "question", böko "book", heredo "herd", soroho "pain", and many more. 'Second declension, type C: pre-palatized stems' These technically belong to this declension despite the divergent appearance of their nominatives. Being palatized already, the root does not change. bõđi, "band" (f) Many other nouns are declined like bõđi, including heči "field", movi "virgin", vošči "clothes", horođi "city", and many more. 'Third declension, type A: invariant stems' The third declension continues the Proto-Germanic i-stems. These are masculine or feminine nouns. oroms, "arm" (m) Many other nouns are declined like oroms, includibg boroms "breast" (f), čẽs (oblique stem čen-'') "woman" (f), ''vẽs (oblique stem ven-'') "friend" ©, ''homuns (f) "memory", and muns "thought" (m). 'Third declension, type B: palatizing stems' The palatization here is simple. All plural forms get palatized. oroblets, "work" (f) Many other nouns are declined like oroblets, including bolohs "belly" (m), mots "meat" (m), stods "place" (m), fljuhs (m) "fly", õst "favor" (f), đeds "act, deed", haborots "birth" (f), huds "thought" (f), vorots "root" (f). Note that there are no pre-palatizing nouns in the third declension, because ancestrally all of these nouns were i-stems. 'Fourth declension: N-stems' These are nouns that take a suffix n'' with a theme vowel in the oblique cases. Since nouns in ''n are almost always invariant, these nouns do not exhibit palatalization variations. These nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. 'Masculine' hono, "chicken" (m) Many nouns are declined like hono, including očo "father", bljumo "flower", mjeno "month", snoho "shirt, tunic", and many others. 'Feminine' čunga, "tongue, language" (f) monohje, "crowd" (f) 'Neuter' hereta, "heart" (n) Adjectives As in other Germanic languages, adjectives are either strong or weak, depending on the syntax of the noun phrase. Adjectives also agree in case, gender, and number with the nouns they modify. On the other hand, many of the distinctive features of adjective declension have been dropped in Swamp Gothic. 'Strong adjectives' Strong adjectives are of two types: *The first group uses first declension endings in the masculine and neuter forms, and second declension forms in the feminine. These bear inflections identical to the corresponding nouns. *The second group uses third declension forms corresponding to the gender of the modified noun. In the strong paradigm, these too are identical to the corresponding noun inflections. 'Weak adjectives' All weak adjectives are declined in a way similar to fourth declension nouns, and derived by rule from that declension. Where a nasal vowel appears in the noun paradigm, in the adjective paradigm the vowel is denasalised and the nasal consonant appears instead as m'' in the dative, and ''n in other cases or when followed by another consonant. 'Masculine' bilẽdo, "blind" (m) 'Feminine' bilẽda, "blind" (f) 'Neuter' bilẽda, "blind" (m) Pronouns 'Personal pronouns' Subject pronouns are not routinely dropped in Swamp Gothic, though they can be and frequently are dropped when clarity allows it. In the past tense their use is more mandatory, since the past tense verb forms are declined according to gender and number rather than being conjugated by grammatical person. Here, too, the pronouns can be dropped once the identity of the subject is established. 'Demonstrative pronouns' In many cases, these have the force of an article. 'Interrogative pronouns' Verbs The Swamp Gothic verb is much less well preserved than the noun. The conjugated past tenses have been replaced by a form that does not inflect for person, but rather for the gender and number of the subject; in origin it is a participle. The present tense also serves as a future tense, and can be made explicitly future by adding an adverbial particle. Because of this, the distinction between strong and weak verbs is much less salient, if not entirely gone, in Swamp Gothic. On the other hand, the past tenses inflect for perfective versus imperfective states via a number of unpredictable variants. In the present tense, the endings of the strong verbs have generally prevailed. The dual number is lost, as is the Gothic second weak conjugation. So in essence, the conjugations of Swamp Gothic have been reduced to two: the immutable and the mutable stems. The strong/weak distinction persists in the formation of the preterit and participles. ''nimõ'', "to take", immutable stem 'Present' 'Past' ''jetõ'', "to name", mutable stem 'Present' 'Past' ''vjesõ'', "to be", irregular 'Present' 'Past' The past tense of vjesõ is regular, and inflected for gender and number, agreeing with the subject. *Perfective: vjaro &c. *Imperfective: bino &c. Syntax Lexicon }]]}}}}}} }} No. English |;}}}} |true}} | | +1}}}}}} +1}}}} |;}}}} }} | ||true}} | ;| }} +1}}}} }} }} 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 Example text 'Bede's Ecclesiastical History' Jažõ jišt Britannia in sevo; mẽ vurus jetonõs tẽ Albion. Vilič ẽt norodo u vješčo, vidro, ma vóro, va Čudišlẽdo, Hólo, u Hispanjo, šo Ivropas delos hóbidos. :Britain is an island in the ocean, formerly called Albion, lying between the north and the west, opposite, though far apart, to Germany, Gaul and Spain, the chief divisions of Europe. Račič norodas atti hỹdra milos, u tvje hỹdra milos beredo jišt. :It runs northward for 800 miles, and is 200 miles broad. Sutvara võti ta spečič hójs Gallia Belgica jetona. :It has on the south opposite to it the province called Gallia Belgica. Josonos u bojmos sumos jišt jažõ fulano, u ha-máta ef lammos u fjechos fođõ, u vinhorodas jalodo in hójõ sumõ. :The island is rich in crops and trees of various kinds, and it is suited for grazing sheep and cattle, and vineyards are grown in some places. Čenodo ók lẽdo jičo vujla kunje sumje u đyza morjeseva, u jabija boronje u java fulana o viščje. :This land also produces birds of various kinds and marine animals, and (it abounds) in springs and waters full of fish. Selkas, valas, u morjesvinas uffa fachodo hjer, u sumos kunes ščeledviščje u midije uffa nimodo, u in tõs morohoričo bleščon volje forovje uffa fẽtodo. :Seals, whales, and porpoises are often caught here, and various kinds of shell-fish and mussels are commonly taken, and in these are often found the finest pearls of every colour. Hjer ja monohje snilja, fero čem tovodo forova 'róda ščeledviščje'; tá ni sóls kunič blečinõ, ni rijn onmočõ, u voročič mjer skóno čer jalodam. :There is also here abundance of molluscs, from which is made the dye of ‘shell-fish red’; this neither the sun can bleach nor the rain mar, and it grows fairer with age. ''Lẽdo jičo ja habič čerkas ef soloto u vodan voroman, u botanas voromas in sumõ hojõ, ha-mátas ver volõ jalodõ u beđõ kunjẽ, :The land also has salt-pits and hot water, and hot baths in various localities, suitable for every age and both sexes. ''Čenodo ja jezas af kuparis u ježoronis, blivo u šilobor in juchmẽ. :It also produces ores of copper and iron, lead and silver in masses. Koroban ja fẽtodo hjer; ši jišt žuvlo svoroto, vis je verepodo in fono, teljuchõt fro tiže voromos. :Jet is also found here, which is a black gem; if put in the fire, adders fly from it. ''Vurus jažõ sá ja ukrasjodo bajm borohõ jotaliston, tve tižu u njỹ rokanje, vỹdrádinon vađõ, čelicnõ, dórõ, u lukõ svẽtuston, vasto borohõ võtoron vỹrokaninon je lečilon. :Formerly this island was also embellished with the noblest of towns, twenty-nine in number, furnished with walls, towers, gates and the strongest of locks, besides countless other towns of smaller size. Vi jažõ sá vilič noch up čis veredis filu norods, u noches hjer šẽt bereches in sumoro, své uffa in mižinocho sakons kumič an vachvẽs, je še jovẽdis dimmo, je še morohinis vostars; mit tam skerodo vis dohas šẽt filu lanhas in sumoro, u ja nochas in vẽtoro, tẽ in veredis delõ sutfarõ. :As this island lies close under the very north of the world and the nights here are light in summer so that often at midnight a question arises among the spectators, whether it is the evening gloaming or morning dawn-by this it is clear that the days are much longer in this island in summer, and also the nights in winter, than in the southern parts of the world. 'The Lord's Prayer' Atta vỹsoro, tu in himinõ, vjechnje noma čéna, Kimje čudonrjeks čéna, voroče vilja čéna svo in himino, ja on jereče. Hib vỹsis ton doh ljev vỹsoro šinčéna, u bilat vỹsis skulõs vỹsoro svo viš bilatõ jẽs skulanas vỹsis. 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